Protective packaging for various articles of different sizes and shapes is commonly used to protect and cushion articles during mailing or shipping. One example of an apparatus for forming heat sealable packaging surrounding articles is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,088 to Niwa. In such apparatus articles are successively placed at spaces between a pair of heat sealable webs which are being longitudinally fed through a sealer. The sheets are first heat sealed at each end of the article and subsequently sealed on each side. The wrapped articles are separated one from the other to provide a series of separate packages with the package being sealed on all four sides. The object of this apparatus is to provide wrinkle free packaging by forming side seals on each package, the transverse sealing of which has been finished while at the same time pulling the opposite lateral sides of the sheets outward aslant with respect to the direction in which the package is being conveyed.
Another article packaging system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,357,151 to Monoghan which describes a sleeve-wrap machine which purports to provide a means for weakening the webs in the cross-web direction. Articles are continuously advanced between two continuous webs of thermoplastic shrink wrap material. Prior to entering the package forming operation each web is weakened at the joint between each successive package using a roll containing needle-like teeth. The lateral edges are sealed by radiant heat to form a tube which is transported to a heat shrinking tunnel to shrink the webs about the article. When the article leaves the tunnel the webs rupture at the weakened point under the tensile stress to separate the preceding wrapped article from the succeeding article.
One difficulty with presently available machines is the ability to package articles of different sizes and shapes without changing the parameters of the machine. Thus, the need remains for providing an improved packaging system which will produce protective packaging around a variety of articles using a varied selection of available wrap materials that can be chosen for each user's needs.